photo credit: Shandra Back
Speakers line up to address the school board at the January 15, 2026 Windsor Unified School District board meeting.

Students, parents and educators in Windsor protested at the public school board’s meeting Thursday over the district’s decision to reject a young adult novel from its curriculum.

About a dozen people lined up during public comment to express disappointment and urge the board to change its decision.

Windsor High School English teacher Julie Forrest brought the novel Scythe to the board in December, asking for approval to teach it as part of a 10th grade program for reluctant readers. The request was denied in a 3–2 vote.

Forrest says she felt the decision was made before she even stepped up to present.

“I think I was expecting to have open ears and open minds versus adamant wall before we even had a discussion.”

Forrest, Windsor High School 2025 teacher of the year, says she feels disappointed by the response from the board.

“I expect that you would meet me and you would actually maybe trust my professional judgment because that's what you hired me to do.”

Board members who voted no on the book cited concerns that it’s a triggering read. One member questioned whether, with the violence seen on the news, the district should be teaching these themes in a classroom.

Tegan McKoy and Alex Arreguin, both former students of Forrest, pushed back.

“I think there's a lot lot more triggering things that we would see on social media or even in person at school than we would with words on a page in a book that we're learning in a controlled environment with our teacher,” said McKoy.

“We have so much violence going on already and the fact that they want to hide it and sugarcoat us, I think it's doing us a bad,” said Arreguin.

Windsor High English teacher Jessica Allison, who teaches the grade above Forrest, says she has been wanting to bring more diverse and timely options to the board but was nervous. She waited for Forrest to take the first pass.

“I changed my mind after I was just so disheartened after the last meeting and seeing what she had gone through, and I don't think that the books would have been approved anyway,” she said. 

“I think this is a wake up call for all of us in Sonoma County," said Windsor Library Commissioner Deborah Doyle. "We don't want to be banning books.”